| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paradise Lost by John Milton: A long day's dying, to augment our pain;
And to our seed (O hapless seed!) derived.
To whom thus Eve, recovering heart, replied.
Adam, by sad experiment I know
How little weight my words with thee can find,
Found so erroneous; thence by just event
Found so unfortunate: Nevertheless,
Restored by thee, vile as I am, to place
Of new acceptance, hopeful to regain
Thy love, the sole contentment of my heart
Living or dying, from thee I will not hide
Paradise Lost |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: the people, in France especially, became merely masses, a swarm of
incoherent and disorganised things intent on the necessaries of
daily bread, like mites crawling over each other in a cheese.
Out of this mass were struggling upwards perpetually, all who had a
little ambition, a little scholarship, or a little money,
endeavouring to become members of the middle class by obtaining a
Government appointment. "A man," says M. de Tocqueville, "endowed
with some education and small means, thought it not decorous to die
without having been a Government officer." "Every man, according to
his condition," says a contemporary writer, "wants to be something
by command of the king."
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: about it. Do you think of going there to-night?"
"Yes -- --" The woman again paused. There was
no necessity for any continuance of speech, and the fact
that she did add more seemed to proceed from an
unconscious desire to show unconcern by making a
remark, which is noticeable in the ingenuous when they
are acting by stealth. "You are not a Weatherbury man?"
she said, timorously.
"I am not. I am the new shepherd -- just arrived."
"Only a shepherd -- and you seem almost a farmer by
your ways."
Far From the Madding Crowd |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Not so. I can't be bothered by caring for a lot of
stupid Skeezers. Stay where you are, or go wherever you
please, so long as you keep away from our mountain." He
turned to his men and added: "We have conquered Queen
Coo-ee-oh and made her a helpless swan. The Skeezers
are under water and may stay there. So, having won the
war, let us go home again and make merry and feast,
having after many years proved the Flatheads to be
greater and more powerful than the Skeezers."
So the Flatheads marched away and passed through the
row of palms and went back to their mountain, where the
Glinda of Oz |
